Waterslides cause a rider to descend and travel through the slide structure at considerable speed and, indeed, the experience of speed is one of the attractions of this type of amusement ride. By the end of the ride, however, the rider must be brought to a full stop. A waterslide must therefore be designed so that a fast-moving rider is safely slowed down and brought to a stop.
Waterslides commonly have at their end part an elongated and gently sloping flume, which may be a tube or open channel, to provide a place in which the rider can slow down before coming to a stop, for example by dropping the rider into a pool or onto a soft mat. Flumes for this purpose require considerable space. Where the waterslide is subject to space limitations, for example a waterslide on a cruise ship, such elongated flume may not be feasible.